What would you guys consider a visited state? In my opinion, you have to sleep over at least one night and during the day you have to do some activity at the minimum. Anything from shopping for a few things, eating at a restaurant, or just a little sightseeing. Gas stops during a road trip or sleeping over for a night where you check in and immediately drive and leave the morning doesn’t count
EDIT: I would like to further add. Even if you don’t stay over in a state, if you visit a state for a specific event or purpose and leave the same day, I would also consider that a “visited” state.
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I would say you have had to stay there for over an 4 hours off the highway to say you have visited it. I don’t really think driving a whole bunch constitutes a visit.
I once did a road trip with my cousins where we visited every state east of the Mississippi River (plus D.C.) in 96 hours.
Our rule was that in each state, we had to do something significant and unique to that state. Sometimes it was a quick meal at a local restaurant or visiting a landmark. But it had to be meaningful and memorable, and require getting out of the car, talking to locals, and walking a reasonable distance.
It was a hoot and I now have at least one good memory from all those states. *”Oh, you’re from Rhode Island? I once had a wonderful sandwich at a restaurant built out of an old converted church. There was this old man with a feathered hat and the funniest story about a chicken…”*
If I actually stopped to look around, it counts. Just driving through, maybe stopping for lunch, doesn’t.
I don’t think you need to sleep there. Example, if you drove up to Boston to go to a Red Sox game from out of state, I definitely think that counts as “visited Massachusetts”.
Visited just means driving through it. I’d re-word this to “what is the minimum you have to do in a state to mark it as toured”
I’d say visit the major cities, eat the local food, and visit any national parks or major tourist attractions like Cedar Point/Lake Erie for Ohio.
For me, if I had to define that, I would probably define it as “deliberately going inside the state to do something [relatively] unique to the area”.
Simply transiting though wouldn’t count in my definition. Flying in, hanging out at a bar and attending a soccer match would still count
1 non-work/non-travel related activity.
If say you drove through PA but spent half a day visiting Gettysburg that’s visiting PA. I typically won’t count eating there unless you didn’t have to or went out of your way to find a particular restaurant. If you are in NYC for work but make a point to hit (insert restaurant) that also counts. If you just eat in the hotel lobby cuz it’s easy that doesn’t. Connecting in the airport or sleeping in the hotel don’t count if you are just laying over. Attending a business meeting doesn’t count without some other activities involved.
I count it if i drove through there and saw a meaningful amount of it or if I stayed the night.
You have to do an activity that isn’t travel logistics (eating, getting gas, stopping at a motel, etc), with at least 2 hours of “feet on the ground.”
That’s a good question. Driving through isn’t enough or a layover obviously.
I don’t know if it has to be a sleep over, but I don’t think I’ve ever been at a state that I have been on the fence.
Like I feel like stopping at a cruise port doesn’t even count because – it’s like this weird manufactured bit for tourists usually.
But really – other than HERE I don’t think it comes up ever in my life.
If it did I’d probably have a long winded answer like “Oh, I’ve been to 45 but 2 don’t really count because one I only was there for an over night because the car broke down and I was in this hotel where I …” And then people stopped listening and were sorry they asked how many states I’ve been to.
I think if I spend about 4-6 hours in a state where I’m not driving or in a hotel room it’s enough to say I visited.
Leave the airport
Personally? Pee on it. Not in it, **on** it.
I wouldn’t count an airport layover as a visit. Driving through counts as visiting a state. Sleeping overnight is not a requirement to call it a visit.
I just drove one state over this weekend to visit with family for an afternoon. We went to lunch, and enjoyed the scenic beach route. We didn’t spend the night. That was definitely a visit.
I’ve driven along the northwestern corner of Arizona for les than an hour each way, going from Las Vegas to St. George, Utah, and while I can say I’ve been through there, I wouldn’t say I’ve visited Arizona.
I think crossing the border on land counts or maybe even water.
The only thing that doesn’t count to me is flying overhead and being in an airport
Yeah I think your edit is key. Ive lived within an hour of NYC my entire life, been there countless times, but now that I’m thinking of it I don’t think I’ve ever slept there. A lot of stuff I do is in NYS too, when my horse was boarded over the border (for years) I was there every day. It’s the state I spend most of my time in outside my home state, and I’m actually less likely to spend a night there cause it’s so close to home.
A [very similar question was just asked last week](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/11rs467/what_would_you_count_as_having_visited_a_state/). I’ll [paraphrase my response below](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/11rs467/what_would_you_count_as_having_visited_a_state/jca9xu8/?context=3).
There is a some what well known phrase from a Supreme Court ruling about defining or identifying obscenity, “I know it when I see it”. As someone who has visited 47 US states I apply this to the way that I classify whether I have spent enough time and done enough things in a state to say that I’ve “visited” that state.
For instance, I spent an afternoon driving to Bismarck, ND and then spent the night in Grand Forks, ND. Despite the fact that I spent slightly less than 24 hours and drove through an area roughly the size of one quadrant of the state…I confidently tell people I have visited ND.
At the same time, until recently, the only time I’d been to LA was to go to a football game in Shreveport. I arrived, spent the night, got drunk, went to the game (we lost), got more drunk, spent the night, left. I could never bring myself to claim that I’ve visited LA until a recent trip where I spent the better part of a week visiting NOLA and then driving up through parts of the rest of the state.
ONE of the following, cannot be within the airport:
– eat a meal (sitting down in the restaurant, no takeout in the car. national chains excluded.)
– visit an attraction (state/national park, monument, museum, etc)
– do an activity (any kind of tour, see a concert, attend a convention, go skiing, etc)
I apply this standard to determine which countries I’ve visited too.
Well, I consider that I’ve been to Oregon because I made a side trip and got gas while I was visiting Idaho. But since literally the only thing I did in Oregon was to get gas, I don’t call it a visit even though technically, it was. You could even call getting gas in Oregon pretty unique because of their anti-self service policy.
I do consider that I’ve visited Chicago even though I was only there for a wedding and the only non-wedding related thing I did was get late night pizza after the wedding party ended.
My friend and I were just debating this! She travels a lot for work so she was debating whether she should count the ones she drives/flies through. She had a point I hadn’t considered. She said that it doesn’t count if you only go to corporate-y places that exist everywhere. Like, if you visit Denver but you only go to Starbucks, McDonald’s and a Kroger-brand grocery store, and you don’t really leave the convention area then you didn’t really visit Colorado. I think that sounds like your same general premise of needing to stay overnight.
The metric I’ve always used was “be in the state on foot, or in a mode of ground-based transportation”. Airport layovers don’t count unless you leave the airport.
When I was a kid, I’d never been to California before. We went to visit family in Nevada and went to Lake Tahoe. And at the California state line sign, we took pictures of me “stepping foot” in California for the very first time in my life. We spent a little while on the California side. I definitely consider that my first visit to California.
My family road tripped a lot when I was young. We always stopped for pictures at all the state signs.
I would consider officially “visiting” a place if you step out of a vehicle in that place, or if traveling by air, step out of the airport, even if it is for something quick such as refueling your car. For example, I have connected through the airports in Kansas City and St. Louis, but never stepped out of them, so I don’t consider myself to have truly visited Missouri.
Take a picture with the You are now Entering. . . sign.
I’ve got several different levels of “visited”
1) airport only
2) drove through but didn’t stop for more than gas / snacks / bathroom
3) stopped for at least few hours and saw some local stuff
4) stayed overnight
5) lived there
My bare minimum rule is to spend the night and eat at a restaurant that is only located in that state.